Please log in

or

Register now for free

or

Choose your profile *

Email *

A valid e-mail address. All e-mails from the system will be sent to this address. The e-mail address is not made public and will only be used if you wish to receive a new password or wish to receive certain news or notifications by e-mail.

Password

Username *

Newsletters

Higher education updates from the THE editorial team

World University Rankings news

If you do not wish to be contacted about offers, products or services from THE/TES Global then please check this box

Call for fines to root out racism

Scotland's higher and further education funding councils could play a key role in stamping out racism by imposing financial penalties on universities and colleges that fail to meet set targets, writes Olga Wojtas.

Delegates at the Rooting Out Racism conference, organised by Lothian and Borders Police and Edinburgh and Lothians Racial Equality Council, were also warned that institutional racism could destroy the lucrative market in overseas students.

Rowena Arshad of Edinburgh University's centre for education, who chaired a workshop with Geoff Palmer of Heriot-Watt University, said promoting racial equality in tertiary education was hampered by the invisibility of racial matters as a field of study.

Ms Arshad said that the race equality advisory forum set up by the Scottish parliament was expected to produce recommendations for the tertiary sector later this month.

She also welcomed the Bett report's recommendation that institutions make a clear statement of their equal opportunities policies and what steps they were taking to ensure equality for women and ethnic minorities.

Institutions should also consider targets appropriate to their own circumstances. "If you start building these things in structurally, people have to think about them," Ms Arshad said.

Professor Palmer said there was a case for setting and monitoring employment targets, and that acts of racism should warrant penalties ranging from severe recorded warning to dismissal.

He also warned of the damage racism could do to the overseas student market, which, he said, was of enormous strategic and economic importance to the United Kingdom. The government wants institutions to increase their share in this market, he said.

"Racism will destroy the overseas market. If people come here and are treated badly, they will not come back, and they will tell other people not to come," he added.

You've reached your article limit.

Register to continue

Get a month's unlimited access to THE content online. Just register and complete your career summary.

Registration is free and only takes a moment. Once registered you can read a total of 3 articles each month, plus: